


Sizing Up

by onceuponachildhood



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Bonding in the Mess, Conversations, Friendship, Gen, Mild Language, Party Banter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-08
Updated: 2015-07-08
Packaged: 2018-04-08 06:02:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4293486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onceuponachildhood/pseuds/onceuponachildhood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wrex asked a harmless question in the Citadel's elevators, and Shepard wanted answers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sizing Up

* * *

The mess hall was quiet, for a change. Shepard was surprised to see that her squad were all eating at the same time, but she was glad that they were. You could learn to trust someone with your back sitting across a meal table with them as well as you could on the battlefield. Shepard took her tray and dropped into the seat next to Tali. It always seemed to startle the quarian when Shepard treated her like a person, so Shepard would keep treating her like that until it felt natural to her. Shepard glanced over at Tali and gave her a reassuring smile before she dove into her meal. Nobody said anything, and the quiet was peaceful. Peaceful was nice, but ultimately… boring.

Shepard turned her focus on Kaidan with a grin. “So, Alenko. You didn’t answer Wrex’s question in the elevator.”

Ashley snorted. Garrus paused, spoonful of weird dextro paste halfway to his mouth. Kaidan gave her a look between panic and embarrassment. “Question?” It was an obvious avoidance. Wrex chuckled.

“I believe he asked you who you thought would win in a fight between you or me?”

Tali’s voice was lilting, even with the filter. “Did he ask you too? Seriously, Wrex? You expect _everyone_ to size up _everyone_ for a fight?”

He grunted in acknowledgement. Shepard waved her hand in the air to dismiss that train of thought. “I’m curious to your answer, Alenko.” And then, partly because she _was_ curious and partly because Kaidan looked like someone had kicked his puppy, she added “All of your answers. I assume Wrex posed this question to everyone.”

“Bingo.” Wrex sounded so goddamn amused. Not that Shepard could blame him. The only person at the table who didn’t look uncomfortable was Ashley, and she was a Marine. “Who’d win in a fight: you or Shepard?”

“You’ve all thought about it, now,” Shepard said. Wrex had put the idea in their minds, of course. But now she wanted to know, and one way or another she’d find out. It’d been awhile since she’d properly sparred; back as far as the ICT, maybe, but she could still put on a good show.

Tali must have sensed something of her thoughts. “Keelah, Shepard, I don’t even want to _spar_ with you. You’d win for sure.”

“You mean if we don’t answer you’re going to fight us to find out?” Liara blanched.

“Research is important, right Dr. T’Soni?” But Shepard made sure her grin conveyed the joke well enough that even the clueless archeologist could get it. She didn’t want the squad uncomfortable. Out of their comfort zones, yes, but not actually distressed.

Garrus hummed. At least he seemed to be giving it some serious thought. “It’d be a nasty fight, I think, but you’d win eventually.”

“Nasty?” Now this she had to hear. “You think?”

One of his brow plates shifted upwards just a hair, a convincing mockery of raising an eyebrow. “You’re telling me you don’t know off the top of your head where turian’s weakest points are? And that you’d be willing to fight dirty? Ignoring the fact that you're a Spectre, you’re Special Ops, right?”

“N7,” Ashley confirmed. “You’d absolutely kick my ass, Skipper, and there’s no shame in admitting it.”

Shepard shrugged. “In a real fight, there’s no dirty or not dirty. There’s alive and dead; winner and loser.” That was a little heavy for the mood, and Shepard struggled to lighten it. “A spar, however…” she paused deliberately. “I’d probably only bruise your spurs then. And I definitely know where to hit to hurt a lady, Williams.” Wrex guffawed. Shepard laughed right along with him.

“Yikes,” said Ashley, but there was a smile on her face too. Garrus made an overdramatic flinching motion before more seriously reaching down to pat one of his spurs.

Kaidan grinned. “You just called the Gunnery Chief a lady, ma’am.” Ashley reached over to punch at his arm.

“And you haven’t answered the question, Lt.”

“Neither has the doctor,” Wrex said.

Kaidan gave Shepard a long look, and she sat quietly, letting her expression fall back to mild rather than seriously amused. “You have trouble fighting other biotics,” he finally answered. It… wasn’t an inaccurate assessment. Shepard filed the information away for later; she’d have to work on that. “But I think you’d beat me, in the end.”

“Me as well,” Liara added, voice soft. “I am not as combat oriented as most biotics, and experience often wins out over raw power.” Liara probably wasn’t wrong about being more powerful, either. But Shepard knew combat like she knew the _Normandy_.

Satisfied that they’d all answered, Shepard sat back and poked at the rations on her tray. The mess fell silent again, and when she looked back up they were all looking at her. “What?”

Wrex rubbed his chin almost thoughtfully. “What about me, Shepard? You think you’d win or I’d win if we fought?”

Shepard set her fork down and deliberately clenched and unclenched her fist in her lap. Wrex was… something. A krogan - a battlemaster, no less. She had issues fighting biotics, which Kaidan had pointed out. She let her eyes trail over his faceplate, then the spinal base where the first and second nervous systems connected. At his weaknesses. He saw her looking, took his own measured gaze at the base of her skull, her sternum, her ribs. The air took on the smell of ozone, and she realized with a grin that they were both tapping into their biotics.

Cracking her knuckles, Shepard released the dark energy. “We’re friends, Wrex. Let’s not find out. I’d hate to be a krogan down on the hunt for Saren.”

Wrex grumbled something under his breath about a quad, but he released his biotics too. And unless Shepard was mistaken, there was just the slightest upward turn of the corners of his mouth.

* * *

 


End file.
